STUDY: The State of Social Marketing 2012 – 2013

Social media exists in a state of constant change, which means community managers must evaluate and adapt their strategies often to achieve established goals. Implementing a stagnate social media plan can end up costing your company more than it benefits you. Simply because one tactic worked well when you first launched your social initiative does not guarantee that success will continue. It is imperative that social marketers are always learning and planning for the next wave of social media consumers.

In a recent survey by the Pivot Conference, 181 professional social marketers offered their opinions of the current state and future of social marketing. The results of this survey are always enlightening, and from 2012 to 2013, several trends emerged that warrant closer examination.

Should Businesses Use Instagram?

Like all social media platforms, Instagram allows brands to interact with the public in a social manner. Sharing the culture behind the brand can create a relationship and deepen brand loyalty when the lifestyle of the brand matches that of its customer.  If you think Instagram is like all the rest—just another social media tool—think again. It allows brands to express themselves to consumers in a unique, powerful way, and with more than 100 million users, it’s shouldn’t be ignored.

Get the Most From Your Next Twitter Chat

The “push-pull” strategy of messaging is well known by most content marketers and PR professionals, but social media platforms such as Twitter now provide opportunities to not only broadcast targeted messaging, but to encourage and engage in direct conversations with their audiences as well. Our social media team recently participated in a highly successful Twitter chat  and wanted to pass along a few thoughts of using Twitter chats to increase your professional development, customer service, community relations and most importantly your business objectives.

7 Tips For Mastering the Vine App

The hottest app in social media, arguably, is the Vine.  Brands, celebrities and individuals are all experimenting with this new image-based messaging tool. Just last week, director James Mangold released a six second teaser for The Wolverine movie via Vine—an audacious move that testifies to the power of the app’s communication possibilities. Not everyone is churning out award winning Vine content. We are all learning as we launch Caliber’s Vine account and we’ve pulled together some of our favorite tips to share with you.

You’ve downloaded the app, now how do you create an effective message in just six seconds?

Will the Hashtag Enhance Facebook Marketing?

Facebook users should be accustomed to change and they can expect to see some big ones coming to the social networking site in the near future.  Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Graph Search; a new way for users to search for photos, people, interests and places within the social networking site’s database. But wait, there’s more!